


an addition

by beforeallthis



Category: All Rise (TV 2019)
Genre: Domestic Fluff, F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-15
Updated: 2021-02-15
Packaged: 2021-03-17 04:53:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,677
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29466063
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beforeallthis/pseuds/beforeallthis
Summary: Lola gets some much needed sleep.
Relationships: Mark Callan & Lola Carmichael, Mark Callan/Lola Carmichael
Comments: 6
Kudos: 9





	an addition

Though Lola reminds herself that she’s lucky enough to be able to stay home, it still doesn’t feel like enough time. The house looks a mess, is a mess, despite the fact that this is where she spends the  _ entirety  _ of her time. Not that she’s complaining – there’s a pandemic outside and she’s got a new bundle of life to protect.

Every day should be the same, but it isn’t. And she’s never bored of seeing what Bailey might throw her way. But she  _ is  _ tired, there’s no denying that. Even when she finally gets Bailey to sleep, she finds herself spending her waking hours in her own thoughts. Work still found its way back home, settling in between her anxieties and fears, between thinking about whether she was built for this at all, and whether she could make it different for Bailey. She saw her and Bailey twenty years down the line, and saw Lola and Roxy instead. 

A voice of reason crops up eventually to let her know that she’s already taking steps so that doesn’t happen.

Bailey is babbling in her arms while she pores over emails coming in faster than she can read, trying to find the important updates amidst the chaos that a pandemic brings about to the legal system. She scrolls, gripping a small stuffed toy in the same hand. Bailey is transfixed.

The doorbell rings and Bailey’s eyes widen at the noise. Lola braces herself for screaming, but Bailey just stares up at her mother. With Bailey still surprised in her arms, she gets up to answer; both Sherri and Sara had been helping her with the groceries, recently – thankfully.

It’s neither Sherri nor Sara at her door. 

“Mark?”

“You gonna let me in?” he says from behind his mask. He lifts the bags in his hands. “Promise they’ve been sprayed and sanitized a hundred times over. Sherri’s orders.”

“Mark!” he moves past her into the house anyway, his eyes softening when he sees Bailey in her arms.

“Hey, sweetie! You miss me?”

Bailey babbles.

“Mark,” she says, again.

“What?” He moves into the kitchen and puts the bags down on the counter.

“It’s not that I don’t appreciate it, but I know how busy you are right now with–”

“And right now, Sherri is busy. So, she gave me the list and I got it all.” He takes off his mask, staring at her blankly for a moment. He waits for her retaliation, but instead her shoulders slump in surrender.

“’Sides,” he moves towards her. “Maybe I just wanted to see my girl.”

Before she knows it, Bailey is whisked out of her arms. Mark bounces her in his hold a few times, speaking incoherent high-pitched praises at her for just being the  _ cutestwiddlebabyintheworldyesyouare _ and the like. At another time, Lola would have rolled her eyes and laughed. But now, she looks at him and feels warmth bubble up inside her, and a small smile on her face – nothing to match Mark’s own grin.

“She’s smiling at me, Lo,” he says. Bailey is holding one of his fingers while he sways from side to side. Nonsensically, she thinks. It makes her laugh anyway. 

Lola rounds the counter to sort through the bags, when she realises one of the bags is not like the others.

“And what’s this?” He stares at her blankly – again – until she pushes the bag forward out of the others. In it is a thin box.

“Hey, hands off! It’s not yours.”

“When is it ever.”  Almost all the toys around the room were from him.

And that was just this room.

She throws her arms in the air and abandons the whole thing. Instead, she takes a seat back in front of her laptop to see 23 new unread emails. Mark leans against the counter next to her, Bailey still gripping tight onto his finger even though her eyelids suddenly went heavy. Lola looks up at them and sees his thumb moving back and forth against the blanket, and watches him watching Bailey with a smile.

“And they said I was a natural.”

He looks at her then with a different kind of smile on his face, equal parts surprised and proud. She knows in the back of her mind that that’s a compliment he would let go to his head, but there were worse things to feed his ego. She passes him the pink bunny she had been holding earlier – one he had bought, incidentally – and places it carefully between him and Bailey. On her screen, four new emails appear.

“Now that I’m here, Lo,” he says, gently. “I figure you’ve been holed up in here, you might want to get out. And I can get some quality Bean time.”

“Bailey, Mark.”

“Sorry, wow. They just grow up so fast.” She doesn’t even have to look to know he’s grinning.

“Besides, she’s asleep, and I want her to stay that way for a minute.” She’s making a concentrated effort to type out a biting reply to Laski. “And I’m definitely not going anywhere.”

The next thing she knows, Mark’s hand is pushing the laptop closed in front of her.

“Mark!”

“Shhh!”

“Are you  _ shushing _ me?”

“I am. And I know exactly what you’re going to do.”

*

The last thing Lola heard before she fell asleep was Mark talking to Bailey, as though she could talk back. It made her laugh, and it made her feel safe, that Mark was so keen on being there for her, for both of them. Distantly, she wondered if it was helping him with his own work battles building on his shoulders, and quietly regretted making the deliberate effort to not bother him.

Bailey, somehow, brought them closer together. Ever since Lola became a judge, she worried how far apart they would drift. And it got scary, a few times, despite the promises and the stairwell talks they stole together. But even when Bailey was still Bean, he would always be at her side, at work and at home. They spoke everyday. It felt like college all over again.

With a wee addition. 

When Lola wakes up, it’s completely silent. Alarm quickly makes way for relief in a second, a strangely foreign feeling to her right now. Throwing her arm out across the empty side of the bed, she realises she must’ve been out for a good couple of hours – it is completely dark outside. When she reaches for the bedside table to check the time, she realises her phone isn’t there.

_ Mark. _

But she painfully admits to herself what she already knew – she needed this, badly. He knew that, too. He always knew.

She gets up and grabs her robe before splashing some water on her face, and treads carefully down the hallway to peep into Bailey’s room, finding the door ajar. Something catches her eye, and she swears she can see lights dancing off the walls. Inside, she sees that Bailey isn’t here, but she also sees a new mobile attached to her crib. Rabbits, flowers, and clouds hang in the air with light beaming through them softly.

Out of all the things he’s bought, this might be her favourite.

She pulls the door back as she heads towards the dim light of her living room.

Before she gets there, though, she hears something. She hears Mark’s voice, carrying a gentle tune, mixed with hums and words she can’t make out. Carefully, she nudges forward enough to see them; him holding Bailey against his chest, her head on his shoulder, and his eyes closed as he hums.

Nothing compared to when Lola saw her daughter for the first time in that hospital. But in this moment, it felt like a close second. 

She relaxes, the stress ebbing away for the first time since then. All the same, she feels love bubble in her chest, against her ribs, under her skin. Leaning on the wall, she spots her phone next to Mark’s, next to a bottle on the coffee table, remarkably cleaner than she remembered it being. His blazer was thrown across a chair, his sleeves rolled up to the elbow, and he was comfortably stretched across the entire couch. Bailey is wrapped up in a blanket she doesn’t even recognise. In fact, everything is almost unrecognisable; the mess of things strewn about the room has disappeared and the bags on the counter are gone.

“How long have you been standing there?”

Although it’s barely a whisper, it almost makes her jump. Lola looks at him and realises her mouth is agape.

“I just woke up.”

He carefully moves his legs off the couch, still holding Bailey safe against him. Lola goes to sit next to him and puts her head on his other shoulder, which elicits a chuckle out of him for some reason.

“You came out here so I could sleep, Mark?”

“Anything for my girls.”

At that, Lola pulls back and raises her brow at him. He grins that Callan grin at her, and they both laugh before she snuggles in flush against him, impossibly closer, her head back on his shoulder.

“Worked though, didn’t it?” he asks, and she hums in agreement.

“Still, you didn’t have to do all this.”

“My best idea yet, though. Admit it.”

“Thank you, Mark.” It’s said quietly and sincerely. She never has to say it, not to him, but it’s important to her that he knows. She only wishes that she could do the same for him, for the exhaustion she sees in the lines of his face and the tension in his posture. Her eyes close, and she lets out a sigh.

“I don’t know where I’d be without you.”

He turns his head for a moment. She only feels the rise and fall of him as he breathes.

Then, she feels a kiss on her forehead, and in turn, he feels her smile against him.

“You’d be just fine, Lo.”

“Now,” she hooks her hands around his arm, tugging at him playfully. “Sing me to sleep.”

**Author's Note:**

> written as a. practice and b. a little gift for a friend. 
> 
> (p.s. talk to me about lola and mark)


End file.
